Stereotype Threat in Male Nurse-Patient Interactions

Stereotype threat describes the apprehension individuals experience from the prospect of confirming negative self-relevant stereotypes. Due to their minority status, male nurses are believed to be susceptible to stereotype threat effects in the field of nursing.

One hundred eighty-three male nursing students were randomly assigned to one of three evaluative frames (patient management, empathy, or control) and tasked with completing an online patient simulation experiment. With empathy serving as a form of stereotype threat, participant responses were analyzed for tentative language use.

An interaction effect (patient gender × frame) was observed, where participants were most tentative when the simulation involved a male patient in the empathy frame.

Findings from the study offer encouragement as the communicative abilities of participants were not consistently influenced under conditions of stereotype threat. This provides support for the need to forearm male nurses against the pernicious effects of gender-based stereotypes. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(10):614-619.].